Israel thrash Taipei at World Baseball Classic

Israel made it two wins from two at the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday morning thanks to a comprehensive 15-7 win over Chinese Taipei in Seoul.

Having stunned the hosts South Korea 2-1 – who are ranked third in the world – on Monday, Jerry Weinstein’s side moved to within a victory of qualifying for the second round of the tournament, which takes place in Japan, after upsetting the fourth-ranked side.

Dominating from the start, Israel scored four runs in the first inning, increased their lead to 6-0 in the third, and although conceding three runs in the sixth, all but wrapped up he victory by scoring five more times in the seventh.

Not getting carried away, despite his side’s dream start, Weinstein said: “One of the goals is to not put the cart before the horse, we’re not in the second round yet. We’re preparing for the game with the Netherlands and that’s what we’re thinking about right now. My experience has been that when you start getting ahead of yourself, you get out in the future, you’re not taking care of the present. We need to take care of what we’re doing here right now and when we know we’re going to be in next round, then we’ll start talking about the next round.”

They play their final Pool A game on Thursday morning against the Netherlands on Thursday morning, with the top two teams progressing to the second round (Pool E) which takes place in Japan. The top two from that pool will then move on to the semi-finals, which takes place at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.